2011 Seal Campaign

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New Duke University/IFAW study shows harp seals on thin ice

By Sheryl Fink

In recent years, the IFAW Seal Team has witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of climate change on harp seal pups in eastern Canada , including dead seals on beaches, abandoned starving pups found on shore, and whitecoat seals crushed to death in ice before they are strong enough to swim.  New scientific evidence is provingour eye-witness accounts to be startlingly real and deeply concerning for seal conservation. 

A new study shows  that warming in the North Atlantic over the last 32 years has significantly reduced the winter sea ice needed by harp seals for giving birth and nursing, resulting in higher death rates among seal pups in recent years. 

The study  , authored by scientists from Duke University and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and published today in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, raises conservation concerns for the future of harp seals, which are also commercially hunted for their fur, and to a lesser extent their oil and meat.

Harp seals have evolved to rely on stable winter sea ice as a place to give birth and nurse their young until the pups can swim and hunt on their own.   The new study is the first to demonstrate that all four harp seal breeding areas– not just those in the Northwest Atlantic – are being affected by deteriorating ice conditions. 

Sea ice cover in all harp seal breeding regions was found to have declined by as much as 6% per decade over the study period.  The IUCN Red list of threatened species  also notes this concern, stating that “climate change impacts are almost certainly going to be negative for Harp Seals in the future.”

According to the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), 80% of the pups born in 2011 were thought to have died due to the lack of ice. 2010 was the year of lowest ice cover ever recorded  with coverage at about 80% below the expected levels and 70% of the pups were thought to have died. 

Again, in March 2007, extremely poor ice conditions in the Gulf of St Lawrence led DFO scientists to predict that pup mortality in the Southern Gulf could be extremely high, “possibly approaching 100%” .

High ice-related mortality, combined with commercial seal hunts in Canada and Greenland, and bycatch from other fisheries, means that entire year classes of harp seals are likely to be missing from future population surveys.

For example, using the Canadian government’s own estimates, only 600,000 pups were thought to have been born in 2011. If only 20% of these pups survived due to poor ice, 120,000 pups would remain, of which one-third were killed by Canadian hunters.  This would leave some 80,000 pups alive to attempt the northward spring migration, where they are subject to bycatch in other fisheries (another estimated 8,500 seal pups killed) and then hunted in Greenland (an estimated 83,000 seals killed). 

Clearly these are only estimates and we shouldn’t get too caught up on the numbers, since by using these figures the number of seals estimated killed in 2011 exceeds the number that are thought to have been born! 

The point is that entire year classes of pups are being wiped out by a combination of bad ice and commercial exploitation, and not just in one year but perhaps in several years.  This fact will not be apparent, however, until at least 5-6 years later, when these pups would have reached breeding age, and their absence will be noticed in the population surveys.

The increased mortality due to lack of ice and reduced reproductive rates has promptedone DFO scientist to recommend a quota reduction for 2012 .

Unfortunately a quota reduction may not be enough.  The Environment Canada ice forecast does not provide much hope for harp seals either , predicting yet another below-average ice year, with an ice-free Gulf of St Lawrence and greatly reduced ice off of Newfoundland in the breeding area known as the “Front” in March – the period when seals finish nursing and the commercial hunt normally begins.

With media reports that there are some 400,000 unwanted harp seal pelts in stockpiles  , and the recent announcement that Russia (which makes up 90% of the export market) has now banned the import of harp seal skins  , clearly there is no economic reason to continue commercial seal hunting. 

Nor is there any evidence that harp seals are preventing recovery of fish stocks, either through predation  or competition .

Given the continuing cruelty observed during the Canadian seal hunt, the currentconservation concerns for the harp seal population , the predictions for yet another poor ice year in 2012, and the likelihood that poor ice years will continue for some time, it seems clear that NOW is the time to end the commercial seal hunt for good.  There is no justifiable reason for it to continue, and all the reason in the world why it should end.

-- SF

Data from Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Discredits Grey Seal Myth.

2011/09/03 by Marcelo Hoynowski
Original article published 2011/08/02 by Sheryl Fink

Photograph of a grey seal, courtesy of IFAW.

"New research recently published in the journal Nature by Canadian scientists from the Bedford Institute of Oceonography and Queens University indicates that some Atlantic groundfish population such as cod, and haddock, are showing evidence of recovery.

The paper’s conclusions – that reversibility of disturbed ecosystems can occur - is fantastic news for depleted fish stocks in Atlantic Canada. 
What is particularly interesting, however, is that the area showing groundfish recovery – the Eastern Scotian Shelf - 
is the very same area that supports the highest production of grey seals off Canada’s east coast.

This directly challenges the popular belief that grey seal are destroying Atlantic cod stocks."

Remember that myth about how seal were responsible for destroying the Atlantic cod population? well it turns out it's completely untrue (not that anybody is surprised.)

Recent data from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans shows that the Atlantic cod population is beginning to recover, especially in the areas most densely by populated
by grey seals, the same seals thought to be responsible for the depletion of the cod population. This new data has effectively debunked the myth that seals are responsible for the low
cod and haddock populations. With this age-old myth now thrown out the proverbial window, how is the DFO going to try and justify the slaughter of seals this time around?

Irrefutable evidence combined with an international ban on the trade of seal products and increasingly hazardous ice conditions would seem like enough to warrant a cessation
of the seal slaughter, though there hasn't been much discussion of doing so, so for now the most we can do is wait to see how events regarding these recent data play out and
hope that the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans makes a sensible decision in regards to this matter.